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Health care reform is on the verge of a vote, what should I do about it?

03-17-2010 by Colleen King

Well, depends on how you feel about what you are hearing. If you have concerns about what is (or isn’t) being discussed around health care reform, read on.

Personally I’m not a huge on writing politicians but there are times you need to stand up and think you may be counted. This is easy to do–know who your congressional representative of senator is, go to their web site and they have an email form already for you to voice your opinion. Just be reasonable. I’ve been told that one letter or one email gives an equivalent weight of about 5000 constituents. That might be high, but what if it’s 50, or 100? That’s not bad!

So here’s what I sent this morning–please consider doing something similar if you are concerned about what is going to possibly happen this week.

Dear Congressman Sherman,

Regarding health care reform

I’m sure by now this has gotten to be VERY old, and you along with your colleagues want to pass something so the focus will move on.

This approach of ‘pass it now, we’ll fix it later’ really scares me, along with apparently a larger portion of the country. I’m an insurance agent. I along with most of my peers all want to see reform too because we deal with the problems of the current system day in and day out. Trying to get people coverage, affordable coverage, when medication for GERD gets a rate bumped up, or two medications for high blood pressure instead of one gets them rejected. Does not make for a happy work day.

But it has to be done carefully, and potentially, incrementally. Mandating carriers to issue without a mandate to purchase will be a disaster. Who is going to be the first in line? The sickest folks, of course. And I can’t blame them, but that’s what drives up the cost of coverage.

I’m not sure a government plan is the answer. Exchanges, well if they are state run, doesn’t that create another set of costs? By keeping the independent agent in the mix to some degree, I feel, will help keep costs down. Someone has to help people figure out what kind of coverage to buy. And for the most part, we are paid on commission only. No base salary, no benefit package, so if we don’t perform, we don’t get paid. As opposed to a government agency–I won’t belabor the point.

Thanks for your consideration, best of luck out there, and PLEASE VOTE AGAINST THIS DEBACLE.